I've found the most unusual destination for a cycling holiday

Times

2 days ago

Over the years, riding my bicycle in various parts of the world, I've developed a pretty open-minded approach to refuelling — who needs a boring performance gel when you can get all the sugar you need from a pain au chocolat? But pot-roast chicken head is definitely pushing the boundaries, even for me.
Then again, a lot about this five-day cycle tour through northern Taiwan is new to me, starting with the fact that the island, about 100 miles off the southeast coast of China, describes itself as 'a cycling paradise like no other'.
Usually I'm diligent about advance research but this time I'm travelling as part of a 30-strong Hospitality Rides fundraising team. We are tackling 250 miles for two very worthy causes, Only a Pavement Away and the Licensed Trade Charity — both hospitality industry charities — so for once I just turn up at the airport with my helmet and several pints of suncream, ready to ride.
In fact, I'm ashamed to say the most I know about Taiwan on arrival is that all the best 1980s toys were made there.
Many people we spoke to were keen to make it clear they considered themselves both ethnically Chinese and Taiwanese.
Not all of them, however. Before the mainland Chinese or the European colonists (the Portuguese dubbed it Ilha Formosa, or Beautiful Island), Taiwan was home to several Austronesian tribes who now make up only 2.38 per cent of the 23 million population.
Their food is the first we taste, over lunch with our hosts from Pedal Taiwan (local representatives for the UK-based organisers Action Challenge) at Luma'an, an indigenous 'cultural theme restaurant' near Taoyuan airport. Though many of the ingredients are thrillingly unfamiliar (sausages flavoured with flying-fish roe, seafood hot pot spiked with a citrussy mountain spice called maqaw, sautéed bird's nest fern), the sheer volume and variety of food sets the tone for the trip.
On which note, back to that chicken head, draped casually across a platter of shatteringly crisp golden skin and glistening flesh, and served up as part of lunch on our second day in the saddle. We'd completed a muggy morning ride out of Hsinchu City, known as the island's silicon valley (Taiwan produces 90 per cent of the world's most advanced semiconductors) past paddy fields, palm groves, the azure Shih-Men reservoir and up into lush forests of bamboo.
Thanks to numerous stops en route where our support vehicles dole out fresh water, bananas and deliciously salty little seaweed-flecked rice cakes, we manage to tick off 40 miles before coming face to face with the chicken at Tianci Jia Chicken in a Pot, a busy roadside restaurant in Daxi district, south of Taipei with a battery of traditional clay ovens. In true Taiwanese fashion the lazy Susan soon fills up — battered mushrooms, roasted sweet potato, custardy fried tofu and so on — which is my excuse for leaving the head untouched. Walking back to our bikes I notice a dog bowl full of them.
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The bikes are another surprise, made locally by Giant, one of the two huge bike manufacturers based here. As a mixed-ability group comprising everyone from Peloton-obsessed Mamils to first-timers, we're on sturdy hybrids, but the roads are so good that most local cyclists favour nippier road bikes. Head guide James tells us over dinner that the government aims to resurface the entire island once a year, and in five days I notice one pothole, which is positively puny by British standards.
As well as great roads for riding, Taiwan has one of the largest concentrations of hot springs in the world for recovery. Our first night is spent at the Onsen Papawaqa, a stylishly austere mountain spa with several pools overlooking the spectacular Wenshui River. Even though all we're soaking away is a 13-hour flight from London, it's a pleasantly relaxing start to proceedings before we hit the breakfast buffet and the road the next morning.
During a final talk ('don't get ahead of the guide, work as a team, hydrate!') from our team leader Steve, an affable Welsh former royal protection officer who, like team medic Alistair, is supplied by Action Challenge, the red and gold Ling Dong temple behind us suddenly emits a volley of colourful firecrackers. It feels an auspicious start to a gentle 37-mile day along jungly country roads and through quiet villages where phalanxes of foreigners are rare. So rare that people come out to stare and wave, and we're introduced to the encouraging phrase jiayou (literally 'add oil!', or 'give it some welly!'), which quickly becomes the trip motto.
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It's a mere warm-up to day two, almost 62 miles from the city of Hsinchu to the capital Taipei City, with a couple of punchy little climbs and a glorious sweeping descent made much easier by some light coaching on technique from our local road captain Bolton, a lean, endlessly cheerful pig farmer-slash-bike importer who I take to be about 25 until he removes his helmet to reveal a shock of salt and pepper hair. His colleague Stella, who stays at the rear, ready to scoop up anyone struggling, is a former pro whose boyfriend Jason, the spindliest man I've ever seen ('number two cyclist in Taiwan,' she says proudly when he's out of earshot), joins us on day three. He gamely squires a few of us more ambitious sorts to the top of a modest climb without breaking sweat, unlike us in the stifling humidity.
As we gratefully sip cold tea under the corrugated canopy of a tiny café, our phones begin to ping with flood warnings. The rain that follows is apocalyptic. Roads swim like rivers, yet by the time we reach the port city of Keelung it's as if it had never fallen; the pavements are dry as we wander the lantern-strung night market offering everything from traditional spring onion pancakes to experimental roast duck burritos to those bold souls who don't sneak off to McDonald's.
Personally I regret being quite so bold the next morning when, after a lazy start hugging the coast, a sharp right turn brings us to a series of savage hairpins that ascend 1,640ft in five and a half miles. As the group strings out, I can't decide whether to grit my teeth in pain or open my mouth in astonishment at the view across tightly forested slopes to the sea. The pay-off is euphoric: we all make it up under our own steam, no one hitches a lift in the bus, and more than a few tears are shed before we freewheel down the pass to Jiaoxi for some well-deserved wallowing in the hot spring baths.
Somehow our last day in the saddle comes round all too quickly — rolling through rice fields, climbing a pass blazing blue with hydrangeas, slurping tea tree oil noodles at the Dezhi Tea Garden restaurant in Pinglin, and finally, hugging at the top of the final climb. From here, it's all downhill back to Taipei, and a feast to celebrate our achievement, both on the road and in raising £403,000.
What began five days ago as a ragtag group of riders, many of them strangers and some very anxious, has become a tight peloton bonded by shared struggle, sunburn and, yes, the odd crispy chicken head. World-class bikes, semiconductors and memories: all made in Taiwan.Felicity Cloake travelled independently. Action Challenge has four nights' full board from £3,885pp, including flights, guides and support (actionchallenge.com)
By Siobhan Grogan
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